Introduction

Diagrams are an essential tool and a key part of architectural work. They enable us to communicate many different ideas to many different kinds of stakeholders.

Diagrams help delivery teams stay aligned, by serving as a single source of truth about the realities of implementations and products. Diagrams are also a critical way to empower business stakeholders to make the right purchasing and technology decisions.

Diagrams should always:

• Read left to right and top to bottom, as closely as possible
• Convey a message concisely, with an appropriate scope of information for readability
• Utilize Salesforce Diagrams Standard Components, including Cards and a Header with a clear description describing the content, scope and purpose of the diagram

Diagram Scope

The scope of a diagram should be limited to only the critical information to convey for a specific topic. Anything that is not required to capture the message you intend to communicate should be excluded. Multiple diagrams can (and should) be created to capture varying concepts, in order to more clearly communicate and narrow the focus of diagram content.

• Define the critical information/message you need to convey to your audience
• Classify logical scope(s) in order to focus the information to capture the message
• Identify the most appropriate diagram type(s) to use as templates

Diagram Types

Salesforce Diagrams has defined our most useful/popular types of diagrams in order to help you easily utilize templates and understand diagramming conventions. Our current resources are classified as:

Capability Maps

• Capture the property mix and relevant, key capabilities included in a solution
• Focus on functionality, business drivers and values

✨ Find Capability Maps in the Reference Architecture Gallery

System Landscapes

• Capture the products and/or technical systems involved in a given implementation
• Focus on the properties, specific property aspects, and connections across properties

✨ Find System Landscape examples & templates in the Reference Architecture Gallery

Solution Architectures

• Include products or technologies with integration, behavior and/or functionality
• Focus on the detailed connections and/or communication aspects across properties

✨ Find Solution Architecture examples & templates in the Reference Architecture Gallery

Interaction / Process / Flows

• Capture time-based steps, data flows, or interactions required to support a process
• Focus on and clarify (with sequenced numbering) the order of aspects/properties

✨ Find examples & templates of Interaction, Process, and Flow diagrams in the Reference Architecture Gallery

Data Models / ERDs

• Capture entities (objects), relationships and concepts for metadata implementations

✨ Find Data Model examples & templates in the Data Model Gallery

See examples of the Diagram Types in the Reference Architecture Gallery or our dedicated Data Model Gallery. Utilize a template to quickly/easily create a diagram for your use case.

Steps to create a diagram:

• Define the scope of the message you need to convey:

  • Think about your audience, what properties/aspects you need to depict, what information is necessary to capture the message, and what can be excluded

• Ensure there is a Header with a clear Title and a concise, thoughtfully-worded Description that captures the purpose, scope and message of your diagram

• Utilize Cards to capture the properties (systems, concepts, entities, etc.)

• Capture property details or key aspects / capabilities as needed in Card Attributes

• Depict relationships as needed with Connectors between your card properties

• Incorporate Card Icons where useful, available and/or appropriate

• Use Footers and Footer icons to capture any other key property aspects

See the Standard Components page for more details and best practices.

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